Valdis Dombrovskis, the commission’s vice president, said: “Today, for the first time, the commission is obliged to request a euro area country to revise its draft budget plan. But we see no alternative than to request the Italian government to do so. We have adopted an opinion giving Italy a maximum of three weeks to provide a revised draft budgetary plan for 2019”.

The Italian government has, however, hit back warning that it will not change its budget despite the executive arm’s demand.

Meanwhile, global stock markets have hit a one-year low today with Dow Jones down 309.27 points at 25,008.14 and the S&P 500 index down to 2,719.29.

The Nasdaq index is also down 127.04 points at 7,341.59.

Fiona Cincotta from CiyIndex commented: “The floodgates are about open for US corporate earnings as some 150 companies are due to report before the end of the week including Caterpillar and McDonald’s on Tuesday. Many are pegged to report good earnings, boosting hopes that the market will find new impetus to shake off the recent bond-induced gloom.”